A previous posting, "No Preservatives: Abu Ghraib is the fruit our culture has spent a generation preparing," tells of some of the consequences of a moral coarsening of our culture in regard to women which I think had it's genesis in the push to kill babies. I am old enough to remember when I, as a woman, was horrified at the media acceptance of a small group of leather-clad women on their motorcycles at one of the first feminist gatherings down there in Texas, of all places. I think the place was the Astrodome. Thus, the "liberation" of women and "women's lib" began. Abortion has been it's rallying cry ever since. The consequences have been rolling in for some time now but those who incited the consequences are not feeling them..They are too old to know what it is like to suffer the physical and psychological pain of having had one or more abortions or not to have any choice about being able to stay home with one's children because of a culture which now demands two salaries for a family to survive. Anyway, in the previous article about the female role at Abu Ghraib, the following quotes are enlightening:
"The absolute worst was of a young woman holding a leash fastened to the neck of a naked and prostrate male prisoner. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer noted: "One could not have designed a more symbolic representation of the Islamist warning about where Western freedom ultimately leads." Further down comes this quote, "There is room to criticize Mr. Rumsfeld and the Pentagon. But they are not primarily responsible for the coarsening of a culture that took place for a generation and more leading up to the unveiling of such wicked acts. Listen carefully just now. It's a bit too easy to charge all this to the account of those immediately responsible for the policies of the Iraq War. It's more to the point right now to remember who has been opening the doors to all this cultural poison in the first place." And the promotion and the forcing of the idea of abortion by the elite leadership in American has, in my mind had a great big part in the poisoning of our culture.
Insightful post, Jazzlite. There are many ways to look at abortion: Abortion is murder. Abortion is female liberation. Abortion is population control.
All of these statements are generalizations and do not address the particular, individuals who have experienced abortion firsthand. Abortion has undoubtedly both caused and been a part of a deadening of sensibilities with regard to the sanctity of human life and dignity overall. This we have seen in the film arts over the last three decades, in music, in education, and it came to a head in Abu Ghraib - controlled by, incidently, children of this culture. It would seem we laud the causes but lament the results.
Astute observations.